This Week in WoW History: Nostalrius Statement, Rise of the Zandalari, World First C'Thun/Ragnaros

Hey everyone, and welcome to another bit of WoW History! Every week, we look down at important events that happened in WoW (or Blizzard!) for that week.\r\rWe see an announcement that starts paving the way to Classic servers, the Battle.net Restoration feature makes its debut, we get a whole lot of trolling with the Rise of the Zandalari, and some of the first World Firsts happened on this week!\r\rLet's go, then!\r\r\r2016\rApril 26, 2016\r\rOn this day, Blizzard has released a statement about why they had to shut down Nostalrius, the private vanilla WoW server that served as fuel to the flames of the discussion that are classic realms. \r\rBelow you can read the blue post, posted by J. Allen Brack, WoW's Production Director, using Nethaera's account:\r\rWe wanted to let you know that we\u2019ve been closely following the Nostalrius discussion and we appreciate your constructive thoughts and suggestions.\r\rOur silence on this subject definitely doesn\u2019t reflect our level of engagement and passion around this topic. We hear you. Many of us across Blizzard and the WoW Dev team have been passionate players ever since classic WoW. In fact, I personally work at Blizzard because of my love for classic WoW. \r\rWe have been discussing classic servers for years - it\u2019s a topic every BlizzCon - and especially over the past few weeks. From active internal team discussions to after-hours meetings with leadership, this subject has been highly debated. Some of our current thoughts:\r\rWhy not just let Nostalrius continue the way it was? The honest answer is, failure to protect against intellectual property infringement would damage Blizzard\u2019s rights. This applies to anything that uses WoW\u2019s IP, including unofficial servers. And while we\u2019ve looked into the possibility \u2013 there is not a clear legal path to protect Blizzard\u2019s IP and grant an operating license to a pirate server. \r\rWe explored options for developing classic servers and none could be executed without great difficulty. If we could push a button and all of this would be created, we would. However, there are tremendous operational challenges to integrating classic servers, not to mention the ongoing support of multiple live versions for every aspect of WoW. \r\rSo what can we do to capture that nostalgia of when WoW first launched? Over the years we have talked about a \u201cpristine realm\u201d. In essence that would turn off all leveling acceleration including character transfers, heirloom gear, character boosts, Recruit-A-Friend bonuses, WoW Token, and access to cross realm zones, as well as group finder. We aren\u2019t sure whether this version of a clean slate is something that would appeal to the community and it\u2019s still an open topic of discussion. \r\rOne other note - we\u2019ve recently been in contact with some of the folks who operated Nostalrius. They obviously care deeply about the game, and we look forward to more conversations with them in the coming weeks.\r\rYou, the Blizzard community, are the most dedicated, passionate players out there. We thank you for your constructive thoughts and suggestions. We are listening. \r\rJ. Allen Brack\r\rDuring Blizzcon 2017, Blizzard did announce they're working on classic realms! Blizzard was recently hiring software engineers and senior software engineers for the Classic project, which means it is still in very early development. \r\rCheck out when this was reported!\r\r2012\rApril 25, 2012\rOn this day, Blizzard released the Battle.net Restoration feature!\r\rWith the Battle.net Restoration, you're able to automatically restore items that you may have accidentally sold or disenchanted, without needing to clog the in-game ticket system. Although the feature was initially released with a 30-day cooldown, it was since changed so you're able to perform item restorations every 15 days.\r\rYou can restore multiple items within 1 use of the Restoration feature. Below is the short blue post describring it:\rStarting today, players can access a new system that will allow players to recover World of Warcraft items that they may have sold, destroyed or disenchanted: Battle.net Item Restoration.\r\rWith this new self-service option the recovery of an item or items that were recently deleted or sold to a vendor can be restored to a character immediately when using the ticket submission system on our support site. For any items that were accidentally disenchanted the same method can be used to request a review by Customer Support for restoration.\r\rThis restoration option may only be used once every 30 days on active World of Warcraft accounts that are in good standing. As this option has a limited availability and use, we still encourage caution when selling, deleting or disenchanting items.\r\rWhile Customer Service always strives to help whenever we can, with the introduction of this self-help feature we will no longer be able to assist with these types of requests.\rCheck out when this was reported!\r\r2011 \rApril 26, 2011\r\r\rOn this day, Patch 4.1, Rise of the Zandalari was released! Although this was a major patch, it was somewhat minor in content, with no new raids, but lots of quality of life content. Highlights include:\r\rReturn of Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman: With the events of the Cataclysm, the trolls of the Zandalari empire are faced with a bleak future and embark on a bold crusade to unite the Troll Tribes into a single mighty empire. The capitals of the Gurubashi and Amani Empires, Zul'gurub and Zul'aman, were rebuilt, repurposed into 5-man dungeons with new drops. \rQuality of Life changes: This patch did focus on a lot of class quality of life changes, with things like:\rNon-damaging interrupts will now always land on targets, regardless of your hit chance (paving the way for Hit Rating to be removed entirely in Warlords of Draenor);\rSeveral persistent ground effects now display new visuals for hostile and friendly players, making it easy to identify who cast what in a PvP scenario.\rCall to Arms: This new system was introduced as an incentive to lower queue times. Call to Arms appears when a specific role is causing queue times for dungeons (and later, Raid Finder) to increase. If you queue as that role during Call to Arms, you will receive a goodie bag at the end of your dungeon, containing gold, consumables and the rare chance of a dungeon mount.\r\r\rYou can check out the official patch notes here, and you can check our Patch 4.1 Survival Guide with Lore!\r\r2006\rApril 25, 2006\rOn this day, we had the World First for C'thun, the final boss of Ahn'qiraj! C'Thun was very infamous at the time for being the very first "mathematically impossible" boss. He did staggering amounts of damage and mechanics included close to lethal fall damage from the tentacles throwing you in the air. The boss received a couple nerfs on April 25, and the kill happened on the same day.\r\rTo this day, C'Thun holds the title as the longest end-boss to die, staying alive for a staggering 86 days after the Twin Emperor's death. The only reason he's not #1 on that list is because of Ouro, who was in fact glitched to the point of being unkillable. That, coupled with the fact that it was an optional boss, allowed it to survive a day longer than C'Thun did. \r\r<Nihilum> was the guild that landed the first kill, and it is also a controversial kill to this day, as a video never got released. The reasons for that are unclear to this day, but people speculate that happened because of an exploit with the Melmina Disgustosa's Lezzo Nauseabondo della Melmina, which allowed you to stay on C'Thun's stomach for extended (if not unlimited) amounts of time.\r\rBelow you can see <Curse>'s first kill! \r\r\r\r2005\rApril 25, 2005\rAnother World First happened on this day! Ragnaros, the first final end boss of WoW, was defeated by <Ascent>! Ragnaros was a synopsis of everything that Vanilla raid encompassed - Resistance gear, lots of small adds, and overall very simple mechanics that could be followed by people without addons.\r\rWatch the world first video below!\r\r\r\rIt's interesting to see how raid mechanics changed over the years - Raid fights in Vanilla were simple enough to the point where addons weren't a necessity, but they still managed to make incredibly hard fights on those limitations. Nowadays, you're pretty much required to have at the very least a boss timer addon, to know what they're doing beforehand.\r\rHow do you like Classic raiding compared to raiding nowadays? Are you excited for more information on classic servers?\r\rLet us know in the comments, and see you next week!

Commenti

Commento di greenegg

is nost really wow history? it was just blizz shutting down another illegal private server, nothing special.

Commento di Chickenbomb

on 2018-04-25T21:52:15-05:00

I was a pally back in MC days... and it consisted of using an addon that blessed each class with a specific blessing... then hitting the ~ button for 4 hours a night while watching TV

Commento di perculia

on 2018-04-25T22:16:59-05:00

is nost really wow history? it was just blizz shutting down another illegal private server, nothing special.\r\rYeah the only relevance it has is simply due to this being the day Blizz made a statement about it. Zzz. Guess it\u2019ll boost traffic a bit.\r\rIt sparked a discussion which eventually contributed to the BlizzCon announcement and was a very popular post at the time we published it. Anyway, even if you delete that from the post, we still have Molten Core\/C'Thun world first kills which would still drive interest and traffic to the post. People love being reminded of old kills on social media.

Commento di Surveysays

on 2018-04-25T22:39:11-05:00

Bit of history I never see mentioned in regards to the C'Thun world first kill...

The most controversial thing in my opinion about the C'Thun world first kill was the timing of the nerfs by Blizzard. Nihilum was undeniably one of the best guilds in the world but because Blizz nerfed Ouro and C'Thun Tuesday morning during US maintenance the EU guilds received a big head start.

Tuesday morning in the US is of course early afternoon in the EU and since EU raids reset on Wednesday all Nihilium had to do was zone in to a cleared instance, walk straight to C'Thun and kill him.

US guilds meanwhile were stuck at work\/school Tuesday and once raiding began that evening all US guilds had to reclear the entire zone which still took 4-5 hours if I remember correctly even if you one shot every boss. My guild ended up killing him late Tuesday night \/ early Wednesday morning in the US for something like world 13th which I only mention to emphasize that the boss was quite easy post-nerf. Every US\/EU guild that could kill Twins (actual hardest boss in AQ) by that time had had plenty of time to practice C'Thun and knew how to kill him without bugs or glitches.

Commento di TypicalAva

on 2018-04-25T23:38:50-05:00

Oh Ascent, how much I miss you.\r\rNife Rodcet<3

Commento di pankrac

on 2018-04-26T01:15:04-05:00

is nost really wow history? it was just blizz shutting down another illegal private server, nothing special.\r\rYeah the only relevance it has is simply due to this being the day Blizz made a statement about it. Zzz. Guess it\u2019ll boost traffic a bit.\r\rIt sparked a discussion which eventually contributed to the BlizzCon announcement and was a very popular post at the time we published it. Anyway, even if you delete that from the post, we still have Molten Core\/C'Thun world first kills which would still drive interest and traffic to the post. People love being reminded of old kills on social media.\r\rI am so tired of people blaming wowhead for "fake" headlines driving traffic. Perc is right, this is part of wow history because it contributed to Blizzard deciding to give players vanilla servers. As simple as that.

Commento di Terrassen

on 2018-04-26T01:38:51-05:00

I must say that Temple of Ahn'Qiraj was one of the most challenging raids ever when it comes to bosses and trash. The trash have timeless abilities which knock you up in the air and makes you take fall damage, or fear you constantly. The bosses do a lot of damage and require a lot of tactics to succeed. Then you remember how difficult it was back in vanilla when tanks had around 6000 health with full Naxxramas 40 man gear.

This comes from someone who have done every raid in the game when they were current in almost all difficulties, from Molten Core to Antorus.

Commento di Furydeath

on 2018-04-26T02:13:33-05:00

Now Raggy is one shot on private severs and people are all He's so easy...well DUH your playing in patch 1.12

Commento di kodora1316

on 2018-04-26T03:38:06-05:00

I miss the old satchels from Call to Arms. The ones with mounts and pets in them. :(

Commento di tatsuran

on 2018-04-26T05:14:29-05:00

is nost really wow history? it was just blizz shutting down another illegal private server, nothing special.\r\rit was the final straw to that classic server discussion.

Commento di Aldarix

on 2018-04-26T05:49:54-05:00

Vanilla raiding required people to know the fights intimately and it's success compounded by having 40 people coordinated by a raid leader. Best memories in raiding were downing Razorgor and C'thun after long periods of wipes.

Commento di GreySage

on 2018-04-26T09:38:22-05:00

is nost really wow history? it was just blizz shutting down another illegal private server, nothing special.\r\rYeah the only relevance it has is simply due to this being the day Blizz made a statement about it. Zzz. Guess it\u2019ll boost traffic a bit.\r\rIt sparked a discussion which eventually contributed to the BlizzCon announcement and was a very popular post at the time we published it. Anyway, even if you delete that from the post, we still have Molten Core\/C'Thun world first kills which would still drive interest and traffic to the post. People love being reminded of old kills on social media.\r\rI am so tired of people blaming wowhead for "fake" headlines driving traffic. Perc is right, this is part of wow history because it contributed to Blizzard deciding to give players vanilla servers. As simple as that.\r\rWowhead has been focusing on low-effort content and easy ad-clicks over quality content (or a functioning website) for several years now. People complaining about it aren't wrong, but it's also not news anymore. Everyone who has been to Wowhead at all in the last 4 years knows all this by now.

Commento di Neryssa

on 2018-04-26T10:24:58-05:00

Wowhead has been focusing on low-effort content and easy ad-clicks over quality content (or a functioning website) for several years now. People complaining about it aren't wrong, but it's also not news anymore. Everyone who has been to Wowhead at all in the last 4 years knows all this by now.\rHonestly, this is a series about reminiscing what happened in the past, and it's been met with success since I started doing it in September. It's still something that takes a lot of effort to research, even more because many of the older news websites, like Allakhazam, World of Raids, or WoW Insider either no longer exist or have been changed enough to where their past versions aren't available anymore.\r\rNostalgia has always been a strong factor in many aspects of life and people like to think about how young they were, or how long ago something was. I like invoking that feeling on people. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the nostalgia articles, feel free to tweet me at @manfrolina :)\r\rHope you have a great day!

Commento di Lilak

on 2018-04-26T18:42:44-05:00

Something tells me classic server will be up no sooner than 2019, which would be nice for the game's 15th anniversary.

Commento di Vikinng

on 2018-04-27T13:09:38-05:00

great work thank you i love these thanks for posting

Commento di Kaino

on 2018-04-27T21:28:48-05:00

Greysage said: Wowhead has been focusing on low-effort content and easy ad-clicks over quality content (or a functioning website) for several years now. People complaining about it aren't wrong, but it's also not news anymore. Everyone who has been to Wowhead at all in the last 4 years knows all this by now.\r\rwow. yes, I said it. wow. can you be more miserable? Ive come to wowhead for the last 10 years. like many that wont comment. congratulations on being the party pooper. as a pro troll, whats the point, you are just a sad little old man with a bald spot who still lives in his moms basement. gz on being that guy :\/